Endurance

When last I put down “Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage” (so I could devote all my time to Harry Potter), the intrepid explorers were about to land on the desolate Elephant Island, several hundred miles north of their original destination, mainland Antarctica. This is after their ship drifted north for almost a year, caught in solid ice; after the ship finally sank after being battered by shifting ice; after they spent months camping on ice floes the size of a football field, until they could finally make a run for solid land in three tiny, open boats. During all this time, the temperature did not rise above 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

So now, Shackleton and a few of the men have set off for South Georgia Island (a name that makes it sound much more hospitable than it probably is), about 800 miles from the freezing, windy Elephant Island. I already know how the story ends, so there’s not much suspense, but it is a thrilling story. I think it appeals to my love of disaster stories (Titanic, Mt. Vesuvius, you name a famous disaster, and I’m obsessed with it). Although things pretty much turned out all right in this one.

This is the first book I’m reading for the Armchair Traveler Reading Challenge, and in this case I’m very glad to be reading it in my dry, warm apartment and not visiting for real! Every time I complain about winter in Boston, someone should remind me that at least I’m not sleeping in a drenched sleeping bag on a floating piece of ice in sub-freezing temperatures.